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With so much attention being poured onto the upcoming Super Bowl featuring the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots, what little focus everyday Americans have towards real issues has been quickly siphoned towards useless trivia related to the big game. Artificially concocted controversies by the National Football League, specifically the uproar over game-balls that were found to be one to two PSI below the league minimum standard, have allowed otherwise vapid drama to dominate the airwaves. The so-called “Deflate-gate” conspiracy underscores not only the fragility of contemporary intellectualism, but more importantly, the context by which unfavorable policies are pushed through into the mainstream with little to no resistance.

Suspicious Decisions Rendered by Game Officials

Despite the rightful public indignation towards the Patriots organization, whose reputation was severely tarnished in an illegal game-taping ruse later to be named “Spy-gate,” the often outspoken Seahawks’ defensive back, Richard Sherman, brashly proclaimed that no punishment will be levied by the NFL due to its commissioner, Roger Goodell, having a close relationship with Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft. While many football fans worked themselves to a lather through ritualistic tribalism, Mr. Sherman astutely pointed out that professional football is a business, specifically an entertainment business. As such, there is a monetary incentive for sports leagues to feature only the most popular teams in their marquee events.

Investigative journalist and author Brian Touhy emphasizes that match-fixing is not technically illegal in the NFL as a ticket only guarantees that a game is played, and does not speak towards the integrity of the event. While concrete evidence is not available, the circumstantial evidence regarding the controversial calls that were made in multiple playoff games leading up to the Super Bowl suggest that the current match-up was precontrived. The “Deflate-gate” issue, which by itself is an absurdly unusual accusation, conveniently took eyes away from suspicious decisions rendered by game officials.

In a parallel fashion, a similar ruse is taking place in the financial markets. The greatest fear, we are told by mainstream news, is deflation, that commodity prices will plummet and send oil workers into the unemployment line. The underlying message of course is that physical safe haven assets, such as gold and silver bullion, will inevitably lose most of their luster. However, as with the Kraft-Goodell relationship, the conflict of interest is patently obvious.

Business media, which is sponsored and kept afloat by elitist brokerage conglomerates, would rather have the public investing in equities and mutual funds in order to rake in generous transaction fees and commissions. More critically, central bankers are using the sudden volatility in the oil market to lift inflation targets as the focus shifts towards regional economic growth. Recently, Singapore’s national bank joined a growing list of countries who have announced some variation of quantitative easing as a way to capitalize on reduced inflation concerns. Unfortunately, we have already seen what too much of a good thing can do, but with so few paying attention to the facts, history seems likely to repeat itself once again.

Financial News

In financial news, the U.S. equities market on Thursday scored a modest recovery after a series of volatile trades, with the benchmark S&P 500 moving up one-percent to 2,021 while the Dow Jones finished the session at 17,417, gaining 225 points. The precious metals complex got chopped down under technical selling pressure, with gold moving down to 1,258 while silver is barely holding onto the 17-dollar mark. Palladium also lost significant momentum, dropping down to 776 on the ask. In digital currency news, an attempt to spark a rally stalled near the 300 dollar level for bitcoin, with the price hovering around 240 dollars at last count.

And that will do it for this edition. Thanks for watching and we’ll see you next week!